We present a detailed comparison of SWAS and ISO observations of
H2O emission in
a sample of outflows. By taking into consideration the different
methods used to derive the fractional water abundance, we
find that, despite the initial apparent discrepancies, there is satisfactory
agreement between ISO and SWAS results for the outflows observed by both
satellites. Such an agreement is reached by assuming that most of the detected water comes from a single region smaller than both the ISO and SWAS beam apertures and considering temperatures higher ( 100 K) and density lower (n(H2) < 2 106 cm-3) than previously adopted.
The ratio between the integrated flux of the
ortho-H2O 212–101 line at 179.5 μm observed by ISO and
the fundamental ortho-H2O 110–101 line at 538.3 μm observed by
SWAS is always smaller (never by more than a factor of 7) than the
expected ratio. We propose that the fundamental ortho-H2O transition has a
contribution from a cooler gas component to which SWAS is sensitive but which is not traced by ISO.
We conclude that, while ISO and SWAS observations are consistent with chemical
models predicting a significant enhancement of water vapor abundance in outflow regions, the explanation for the low water abundance derived from SWAS
observations of the cold ISM is still unclear.

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